£10bn need to fix potholes that are ruining Britain’s cars

According to statistics, one in three cars have been damaged by potholes on Britain’s dreadful roads. The cost of fixing that is around the £10bn mark.

A study has deduced that the number of potholes has gone up by nearly a third to more than 2.2 million, or, one in five of all roads. This has resulted in compensation pay-outs reaching an eye-watering £32million.

£113million was spent last year filling in the potholes and this year is worse, thanks to heavy rainfall, floods and cold-snaps. The investigation by Annual Local Authority Road Maintenance (ALARM) concludes that there’s “a crumbling road crisis of increasing concern”, signing off with a delightfully hysterical notion that this is a “ticking time-bomb”.

The report thinks it is time to “stop the rot” and for politicians to start making some money available to sort all this out, moving on from a policy of “patch and mend” in favour of a “planned, preventative maintenance programme.”

The report said: “The cost of filling the estimated 2.2 million potholes across England and Wales came to £113million, while £32million was paid out in compensation claims and the cost of staff time spent on claims amounted to over £13million. Councils have paid out 50 per cent more last year than the previous year in compensation claims from road users for damage or injury due to poor road condition.”

The AA added, in their own report, that they’ve had to double the size of the team who deals with pothole damage and that: “As spring arrives our patrols are reporting potholes appearing faster than daffodils,” and after polling their members, found that a third have rated the overall surface condition of their local roads as ‘poor, very poor or terrible.’

As much as I enjoy sitting in mile after mile of “roadworks” where there is somebody leaning on a shovel, another drinking coffee and another driving up and down aimlessly, I do believe that the “roadworks” would go far more efficiently IF THEY EVER DID THEIR FUCKING JOBS !

And the other day, I had to go over 40 miles out of my way just because they decided to close off a slip-road for “repairs” with NO warning whatsoever. :@

Whilst driving home the car went down a pothole on the side of the road as a van was coming the opposite direction and wasnt really keeping to his side of the road. Broke the beading on the front nearside immediately, £120 for a new tyre, after that the suspension felt a bit iffy, had bent the front hearside suspension arm, £170 for that. Nice.

Same reason I guess why you see so many cars with a headlight out as the klunk in/out of huge potholes.

Its nothing new, they are whinging now about the costs but the reality is they’ve left some for so many years instead of being easily fixed they are now needing full on work. Years of neglect has led to this so saved money in the short run, will cost way way way more in the long run

on my commute to the train station there are 4 large potholes that have been there for years! Weather conditions and daily use has made these worse and worse and worse, so what would have cost a small amount to patch and repair will now require a massive delay

Agree with Jokester, every roadworks I’ve seen in the last few years there are a ton of people with a handful actually doing something, I swear it never used to be like this! A road near me was done about 4 months ago to accomodate a new Waitrose store. Such a shoddy job it already needs fixing

And where are you going to get the £10 billion to do that then?
I agree with you but someone has to pay for it. So how much on fuel duty then?
Even better sue the Pope as it’s an act of god that caused the weather so he is responsible!

people believe that some of the money they pay for VED goes toward maintaining the road – why not make it that way?!

I ride a motorcycle and in the dark last night went down a big bloody pothole and crushed my nads. not only do i need new suspenders, but now the NHS needs to pay for IVF for me and the wife to bring kids into the world.

You all should visit stoke-on-trent if you want to see real potholes. The council are so utterly useless, beyond increasing their wages and building new council HQs that they have completely ignored the roads.

I keep thinking that i have a flat tyre, but it always turns out to be the potholes in the road forming some sort of weird regular thumping noise. I swear they are trying to wear down the roads to the old roman ones beneath, because they were probably better built.

After replacing my tyres, getting my tracking done (Its off again after a month) and swerving round the roads like I am dodging bats my tiny little towncar has just survived. Its on borrowed time really, the holes are already wheel sized, and one lapse of judgment and its snapped suspension for me!

I have noticed a sharp increase in the number of 4x4s though. Once we have those toyota battlewagons with an anti-aircraft gun in the back our transformation to somalia-on-trent will be complete!

After driving for 13 years it is safe to say everything to do with a motor vehicle is beyond a joke and is only going to get worse.
The poor people who need cars/vans like myself for work are really suffering is high fuel prices, stupid insurance prices and the poor road conditions which means more wear and tear on the vehicle which means more money out of the pocket!!!!!!!